Ablexis, AlivaMab Discovery Services, and Berkeley Lights Collaborate to Identify a Diverse Panel of Anti-SARS-CoV-2 Human Antibodies
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SAN DIEGO and EMERYVILLE, Calif. – April 22, 2020 – Ablexis, LLC, AlivaMab Discovery Services, LLC ("ADS") and Berkeley Lights, Inc. today announced the rapid generation and recovery of sequences encoding a rich panel of human antibodies against the S1 spike protein of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Based on multiplex screening assays performed on the Beacon® platform, these SARS-CoV-2 S1 antibodies may be binned into subsets based on their binding to the receptor binding domain (S1B) of SARS-CoV2, blocking of S1B binding to the ACE2 receptor, and cross-reactivity with the S1 spike protein of the SARS-CoV virus. The observed diversity includes activities consistent with different mechanisms of action hypothesized for highly efficacious antibody therapy and prophylaxis of infection by SARS-CoV-2. The companies will jointly make these antibodies available to an organization with the capabilities and commitment for their further research and development.
"Through this collaborative project, our three companies have contributed their unique technologies and know-how to recover a diversity of potential drug-quality antibodies against SARS-CoV-2", said Larry Green, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of Ablexis and ADS. "We have observed excellent combinatorial and somatic diversity in this panel of antibodies selected for activities consistent with possible therapeutic mechanisms of action. This panel of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies can provide a wealth of material for further research and development."
"We believe the key to anti-SARS-CoV-2 therapeutic development is to rapidly screen and recover functionally diverse antibodies from an in vivo model", said Eric Hobbs, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of Berkeley Lights. "Using the Berkeley Lights platform with our process of ultra high-throughput function-first screening, we efficiently recovered different categories of antibodies with diverse activities, each of which we believe could contribute to the fight against this terrible disease."
Ablexis' AlivaMab® Mouse platform is used by the majority of the world's leading pharmaceutical companies as the platform of choice for the rapid and efficient generation of diverse panels of antibodies with inherent qualities needed for antibody drugs, including affinity, potency, specificity and developability. AlivaMab Discovery Services immunized AlivaMab Mouse by expressing native trimeric SARS-CoV-2 spike protein in vivo using its propriety AMMPD-DNA technology, a process validated for rapidly eliciting strong IgG titers, and molecularly diverse, high affinity (very low picomolar) antibodies. Next, Berkeley Lights, a leader in single cell selection and functional screening, deployed its platform capabilities using its Beacon® system to interrogate single plasma B cells over a two-day period. Using the assays described above to screen for binding and function, the Beacon system efficiently recovered the naturally evolved fully human VH and VL sequences, and therein connects antibody function to variable region sequence for the development of therapeutic treatments.
About Ablexis, LLC
Ablexis, LLC created and commercializes the AlivaMab Mouse technology, a unique, patented next generation transgenic mouse platform for human therapeutic antibody discovery. Ablexis has non-exclusively licensed the AlivaMab Mouse technology to multiple companies, including global pharmaceutical companies, public and private biotechnology companies and other entities. Ablexis continues making the AlivaMab Mouse available via non-exclusive licenses. For more information, visit www.ablexis.com or contact us at info@ablexis.com.
About AlivaMab Discovery Services, LLC
AlivaMab Discovery Services was founded by a team with proven success in the development and use of transgenic animals in the discovery of human therapeutic antibodies. The ADS team applies its decades of combined experience in therapeutic antibody discovery and development to each client project to provide human therapeutic antibody discovery services customized for target type, antibody design goals, and needs of the client. We offer a comprehensive suite of client solutions from consulting on target product profile through delivery of antibody leads that meet or exceed our partner’s project goals. For more information, please visit www.alivamab.com or contact us at info@alivamab.com.
About Berkeley Lights, Inc.
Here at Berkeley Lights, we think cells are awesome! Cells are capable of manufacturing cures for diseases, fibers for clothing, energy in the form of biofuels, and food proteins for nutrition. So the question is, if nature is capable of manufacturing the products we need in a scalable way, why aren't we doing more of this? Well, the answer is that with the solutions available today, it is hard. It takes a long time to find the right cell for a specific job, costs lots of money, and if you have picked a suboptimal cell line, has a very low process yield. The Berkeley Lights Platform delivers and links deep phenotypic, functional, and genotypic information at the single cell level. This is a new way to capture and interpret the qualitative language of biology and translate it into single cell specific digital information, which we call Digital Cell Biology. We have the complete solution to find the best cells by functionally screening and recovering individual cells for antibody discovery, cell line development, T cell analysis, and synthetic biology. Using our systems and solutions, scientists can find the best cells, the first time they look. For more information, visit www.berkeleylights.com.
Media Contact for Ablexis/ADS:
Christine Quern
cq@christinequern.com
617-650-8497
